The topic of Cloud Computing has come up a number of times in bar room chats, some of which have become quiet heated. As we know that intellect is inversely proportional to emotional state, in the cold light of day I have been taking a look at the concept to sort the hype from the facts. So what is Cloud Computing?
According to Wikipedia, “cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.” It goes on to say that “The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0 and other recent (ca. 2007–2009) technology trends that have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. Cloud computing services usually provide common business applications on line that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.”
Well that is plain and simple right? We just move all our applications out of our antiquated and thermally inefficient data centers, and into a number of virtual servers somewhere in the cloud, decommission the old equipment and start saving shed loads of money?
Well no, not really. What about the risk of cloud lock-in? This should be a primary concern for anyone planning to move business critical applications to the new platform. If you use an application in the cloud, such as an all-in-one CRM package, you have a high chance of getting locked-in. Once you have outsourced your operation to the cloud vender to run your applications and store your data, it could be difficult, for which read expensive, to move your application somewhere else.
There is also a lot of debate about the basis of the cost calculations; supporters of clouds cite the advantageous price differential in terms of dollars per core per month, and point out the number of expensive staff reductions you can make in the IT department, notably system administrators, as the cloud can be largely automated. Whereas the McKinsey report Clearing the Air on Cloud Computing, seems to conclude that current cloud computing services are generally not cost effective for larger enterprises.
On the plus side, cloud computing has tremendous promise, with faster time to market, lower IT barriers to innovation, lower up-front IT costs, and scalable services in response to client demand. I for one also like the potential to run a virtual organization, from anywhere in the world, with the ability to bring additional services on line, when I need them, without planning a six month lead time.
Imagine the power of being with a customer at a proof of concept demonstration and then responding to the inevitable question about how soon can we have it live? Taking in the room full of marketers and financial experts, and the expectant face of the R&D director who has been pushing this initiative, I reply confidently “Is Monday too soon?”
For other views see
- Cloud computing From Wikipedia
- The Skinny on Cloud Lock-in
- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
- McKinsey report Clearing the Air on Cloud Computing
- Where Are We In The Hype Cycle?
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